Berries are fleshy fruits.
A berry is a fleshy fruit that has pulp , in which the seeds are found. In general, berries (a term from the French baie ) are edible, like grapes and cucumbers .
In berries, the wall of the ovary becomes, when ripe, a very fleshy pericarp. The seeds are distributed throughout the pulp and have one or more carpels.
Types of berries
There are different types of berries, such as polyberries (multiple berries) and peponides (cucurbit berries). Polyberries are syncarps: fruits that fuse together. An example of a polyberry is the cherimoya , which is the fruit of the Annona cherimola .
Cucumber , pumpkin , melon and watermelon , on the other hand, are berries of the cucurbits. In this case, the external mesocarp and exocarp harden, giving rise to a shell that allows the meat inside to be stored for a long period of time .
From a botanical point of view, many commonly consumed fruits are berries. Lemon , tangerine and orange , to name three cases, are considered modified berries. These are hesperidia, fruits with a hardened pericarp (but not too hard) and meat in the endocarp. This fleshy sector is made up of the carpels that swell between the walls of the ovary. It is worth remembering, as we mentioned above, that in traditional berries the fleshy part is formed by the pericarp (whose layers are the endocarp, the mesocarp and the epicarp).
There are multiple varieties of edible berries.
Goji and its health benefits
Goji is known as a plant whose habitat is found in Tibet , in the high-altitude mountains, and belongs to the family from which the tomato also arises. The fruit has an invaluable wealth of fiber, vitamins, proteins, antioxidants, calcium and sugars, among other components, and this makes it very beneficial for the proper functioning of our body.
One of the effects of goji berries that many pursue is anti-aging , which the Chinese already described in their ancient medical manuals. It is believed that the secret of this property lies in its content of polyphenols, carotenes, trace elements and polysaccharides, all antioxidants that delay the aging of cells.
Antioxidants are also useful against oxidative stress , a disorder that occurs as a result of an imbalance between the amount of free radicals and antioxidants, and which damages cells. Precisely, premature aging is one of its most obvious consequences, as well as the loss of elasticity and moisture of the skin.
The vitamin A present in goji berries, which is found as beta-carotene, is capable of reducing the time necessary for the eye to adapt to the absence of light, so it can be used to treat or prevent night blindness . Our eyes are constantly exposed to various threats, such as ultraviolet rays; Thanks to lutein and zeaxanthin, among other antioxidant flavonoids in these berries, it is possible to prevent the damage caused by macular degeneration and cataracts, in addition to stimulating visual acuity.
Since cardiovascular diseases cause a greater number of deaths annually than cancer, it is necessary to take all possible measures to prevent them. Nowadays, stress is almost impossible to avoid, since it arises as a result of a sedentary lifestyle, poor diet and the demands of society, factors that usually lead to high blood pressure. Goji berry is also recommended to avoid this deterioration of the cardiovascular system so common in this era.